Handling data transmission between a wireless network and a mobile station has been a developing concern in third generation (3G) wireless communication systems such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data only (EV-DO). Generally, data transmission means audio and/or video broadcasts and/or data services.
With the EV-DO and UMTS broadband networks, frequent communication with a mobile station requires a large amount of air interface bandwidth, because there is a large overhead in setting up a connection with the mobile station. Also, the communication with the mobile station's application may wake the mobile station from its low-power dormancy mode, which means that the battery life of the mobile station may be reduced.
UMTS and EV-DO networks are capable of providing many different types of services to the mobile station. For example, these networks may provide a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS). Another example service is known as a “Buddy List.” A buddy list allows an end user to track friends and family for quick instant messages (IM), or track the physical location of a buddy. Tracking of a buddy may be an invaluable function for any parent that wants to keep track of their children.
However, to keep track of a buddy(s) requires frequent communication between the network and the mobile station. An application may require the physical location of several people in a person's buddy list. It is desirable to broadcast ones own location about once per minute to update all the buddy lists. Therefore, a mobile station may receive a message from each buddy about once per minute. For even 4 or 5 people, this means that the mobile station is constantly generating messages, and receiving an even larger number of messages, which takes up network resources and consumes power of the mobile station.